HollywoodNews.com: We all spent a lot of time with our modern family members over the holidays. Chances are, very few of them looked like Sofia Vergara. The stunning “Modern Family” co-star has a very good year in 2011.

Photos by PRPhotos
Her extremely popular sitcom earned multiple Emmy wins (and Vergara scored an Emmy nomination for her work). She also graduated to a steadier stream of feature film work, appearing in the family comedy “The Smurfs” and playing a chef in Gary Marshall’s holiday hit, “New Year’s Eve.”
The sky is the limit for Vergara, who’ll continue working on the latest season of “Modern Family: while also playing a part in Peter and Bobby Farrelly’s “The Three Stooges.” Could 2012 be even bigger for this beauty than 2011? We can’t wait to find out.

HollywoodNews.com: Angelina Jolie seems to make sure to get in quality time with all her children as she recently did as she took her kids out for a special day.
Jolie, Shiloh, Zahara and Vivienne were all together to see the ‘Smurfs’ movie in London, states People. However, they weren’t alone as all the boys followed behind them as they were spotted leaving the film.
The family has been staying in the area while Brad Pitt works on a new film.
Do you think they are raising their children well?
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By Sean O’Connell
Hollywoodnews.com: To date, the live-action/animation hybrid “The Smurfs” has earned $106.5 million at the domestic box office. By the time you factor in international and home video sales, it will be a sizeable hit for Sony Pictures.
So you can understand why the studio is taking the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach to the announced sequel.
Writers David Stem and David Weiss have been hired to return and write the next “Smurfs” movie, according to THR. They’ll once again collaborate with Jay Scherick and David Ronn on a story and screenplay. In fact, they might be further along than you’d think.
Sony, it seems, knew it had a hit on its hands, so they triggered the script for a sequel. “The early assignment was due to the large amount of lead-time required for live action/CG hybrids,” the trade reports. And that finished script was handed in “a couple of weeks ago,” meaning the studio is that much closer to getting “Smurfs 2” into theaters.
There’s no indication whether Raja Gosnell will return to direct his sequel, or if the Smurfs will stay in their forest this time (or tackle a different city). You could always bring Neil Patrick Harris into the enchanted Smurf kingdom, if you wanted to make this franchise a little more strange (like the “Harold & Kumar” films).
We’ll report on “Smurfs” as it develops.
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By Pete Hammond
HollywoodNews.com: Either someone is fudging the numbers or we have a hell of a horse race (or in fairness, Smurf/Horse race) going on at the boxoffice this week in movies. Both Universal which released the sci-fi/western hybrid Cowboys And Aliens and Sony which released the Live Action/animation hybrid The Smurfs are separately estimating that they will finish the weekend tied for number one with $36.2 million each. So we will have to wait for Monday’s final ACTUAL numbers to determine a winner and bragging rights for the weekend. But in truth the real winner here is Smurfs which was not expected to be anywhere close to Cowboys for the boxoffice crown but Friday night it actually beat the Jon Favreau (Iron Man) directed epic although it dropped a bit on Saturday. Because Smurfs has a built-in following of kids and nostalgic adults who grew up with the cartoon series on NBC in the 80’s there was built-in wanna- see for the movie version which follows in the style footsteps of Alvin and the Chipmunks. It really shouldn’t be that much of a surprise to the industry that people might run out to see it the first day , and that they did. In fact I was at a multi-plex at L.A. Live in Downtown Los Angeles Friday night (seeing the terrific new documentary, Life In A Day with six other people who showed up – sad turnout for an opening night) and when I tried to exit my theatre I was nearly trampled by an eager, determined crowd racing into the 9:30pm showing Smurfs on the screen next door to mine. You would have thought they had the Smurfs confused with Justin Bieber (on second thought some people probably do).I had a feeling an upset might be in motion .
Not only did Smurfs “overperform” like they say in the trade, it also got a sterling ‘A’ Cinemascore grade of audience satisfaction compared to Cowboy’s just-okay ‘B’. Considering the huge budget of the latter film and the people involved including gaggles of top screenwriters and producers ( Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard and Brian Grazer among ‘em) this reception was definitely much lower than Universal was hoping. The number $45 million had been bandied about as a good opening gross but it won’t come anywhere near that. One area where Cowboys trounced […]

HollywoodNews.com: This weekend is an excellent example of why it’s the numbers, not the rankings that matter when discussing box office. And, more importantly, the context of the numbers must be taken into account as well as the hard figures. As of this moment, The Smurfs and Cowboys & Aliens are battling for the top slot at this weekend’s box office, with both films hovering at $36.2 million. One cost $110 million while the other cost $165 million. One has strong foreign prospects and a guarantee of eternal life as a family DVD purchase/rental, while the other faces an uncertain future as it belongs to a distinctly American genre. Point being, The Smurfs can take solace that it somewhat over-performed this weekend, while the Jon Favreau genre mash-up may go down as one of the bigger whiffs of the summer season.
Cowboys and Aliens opened with about $36.2 million this weekend, mostly on the strength of men over 25. Sci-fi westerns are a tricky business, as (somewhat stereo typically speaking perhaps) western fans don’t like sci-fi while science-fiction geeks aren’t fans of the classic westerns. Of course, neither Wild, Wild West or Jonah Hex were very good, and Cowboys and Aliens received some shockingly poor reviews. The film received a weak reception from its world premiere at Comic Con last weekend, something that the many powerful people behind the film (director Favreau, producers Steven Spielberg and Ron Howard, etc) were not expecting. Since the film was targeting older audiences as much as the stereotypical geeks, the reviews did matter in this case. The film has a Cinemascore grade of a B+, which is a little low for such apparently mainstream entertainment.
As far as long term marketing, it was a clear case of not quitting while you’re ahead (see past perpetrators of this crime). I loved the teaser from last November, but was less and less impressed with each new trailer. More importantly, the several additional trailers were basically the same footage re-cut. It’s nice that Universal didn’t blatantly spoil the whole film in the ad campaign, but using nearly identical footage cut up slightly differently for six months gave the impression that the bag was empty. Universal should have just gone with the terrific teaser and kept a certain amount of ‘mystery’. This is alas, another […]

By Sean O’Connell
Hollywoodnews.com: It was the neck-and-neck race nobody predicted.
Both “Cowboys & Aliens” and the live-action “Smurfs” movie earned an estimated $13 million on Friday, putting both films on track for a $38M weekend. Analysts say Jon Favreau’s sci-fi/western mash up fell short of its expected $15M mark for Friday, while Raja Gosnell’s family film overperformed.
The increased 3D ticket process might have helped, with “Smurfs’ receiving the bump but “Aliens” sticking with 2D (for the better, creatively). It will be interesting to track each film’s progress over the weekend to see if families turn out in droves and push “Smurfs” to a surprise weekend win.
As for the weekend’s other newcomer, “Crazy Stupid Love,” it got off to a decent start on Friday by earning an estimated $6.5M on its way to an $18-$19M weekend.
“Captain America” also continued to perform well, posting $7.5M on Friday. It could add an additional $25M to its pot by Sunday night.
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By Adam Frazier
Hollywoodnews.com: Smurfin’ Smurfs. The Hollywood Reporter estimates Jon Favreau’s “Cowboys & Aliens” will collect $13-$13.5 million on Friday, which would mean about only $38 million for the weekend.
Likewise, Sony Pictures’ “The Smurfs” should make around $38-40 million over the weekend. In other words, Han Solo and James Bond may have their asses kicked by a bunch of creepy blue Happy Meal toys.
‘80s cartoons and televisions are box office gold. “The Smurfs,” “Transformers,” “G.I. JOE,” and even “Alvin & the Chipmunks” have captured the hearts and minds (and wallets) of those ‘80s kids dying to reclaim a piece of their childhood, simultaneously introducing the gone but not forgotten franchises to their offspring.
Here’s a few ‘80s properties dying for a big screen reawakening:
My Pet Monster: As one of the few plush dolls marketed to boys at the time, My Pet Monster proved extremely popular throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s. The monster had blue fur, horns, and a fanged grin — and was most recognizable by his orange handcuffs, which kids could wear and break apart in a fit of monstrous rage.
The doll spawned a live-action direct-to-video movie in 1986 about a boy who becomes the Pet Monster after being exposed to a statue. Yeah, you read that right – a statue. The kid then transforms Incredible Hulk-style whenever hunger strikes. You wouldn’t like this kid when he’s hungry, you know what I’m saying?
Monchhichis: fuzzy Monkey-like creatures who live in the tall trees of Monchia The tribe’s leader, Wizzar, was a wizard who created magic potions to defeat their enemy, the evil Grumplins of Grumplor. Does this sound ridiculous? Absolutely – but with one horrible animated kids’ movie after another, it could easily be a reality.
Jem and the Holograms: the joint collaboration of Hasbro, Marvel Productions and Sunbow Productions, the same team responsible for G.I. Joe and Transformers, Jem was about music company owner Jerrica Benton, her singer alter-ego Jem, her band the Holograms, and their adventures.
Though a film adaptation could be destined for disaster (“Josie and the Pussycats,” anyone”) it could benefit by being as over-the-top and absurdly ‘80s as possible. No one is better suited to play Benton and her glamorous alter-ego than Lady Gaga. I would gladly lay down some cash to see that!
Thundercats: Sword of Omens! Give me sight beyond sight! It goes without saying that the Thundercats were bad-ass. Cat-like warriors […]

By Sean O’Connell
Hollywoodnews.com: Hollywood continues to pillage out childhood memories to create semi-fresh modern entertainment (i.e. a “Smurfs” movie, coming soon to a theater near you), so it was inevitable that the Cabbage Patch Kids would resurface at some point to appeal to the children of a new generation.
And so we learn that Galen Walker, producer of a new “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” movie, also has grabbed the rights to the Appalachian Artworks dolls and is hard at work on an animated TV special, THR reports.
If you are my age (mid-30s), you remember the flat-out craze that existed around owning a Cabbage Patch, dolls that came with adoption papers and triggered a feeding frenzy in toy stores at Christmas time. (Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “Jingle All the Way” was inspired by the Patch craze.)
“It’s a brand filled with many positive messages for kids,” Walker told the trade. Now idea yet when the show will air, but we’ll keep you posted on details.
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hollywoodnews.com: On Saturday, June 25, 2011, in celebration of the birthday of Peyo, the creator of the Smurfs (born June 25, 1928), Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation will coordinate events all over the world as part of Global Smurfs Day, a worldwide event in anticipation of the release of the Smurfs’ trip to movie theaters, it was announced today by Marc Weinstock, president, Worldwide Marketing for Sony Pictures. Columbia Pictures’ and Sony Pictures Animation’s The Smurfs will be released in theaters in the US on July 29, 2011.
Commenting on the announcement, Weinstock said, “There are few characters as iconic as The Smurfs – for more than 50 years, they have been icons of popular culture, appealing across generations. Peyo’s creation endures, and that’s why Global Smurfs Day is a fitting way to celebrate his birthday.”
On Global Smurfs Day, as participants enjoy fun Smurf-related activities in cities worldwide, they will be invited and encouraged to come to the events in Smurf costume in an attempt to set a new Guinness World Records® title for Largest Gathering of People Dressed as Smurfs within a 24-hour period in Multiple Venues. The events will be synchronized around the world – this will see the most Smurfs that have ever been gathered at the same time. To achieve recognition from Guinness World Records® the global events must collectively add up to more than 2,510 Smurfs. Adjudicators from Guinness World Records® will be on hand in 12 cities around the world as it is expected that hundreds of participants in each city will come to the event dressed as Smurfs (white Smurf hat, white pants and shoes, and body painted blue). While all are being asked to arrive at the event in head-to-toe Smurf costume, each event will have Smurfs hats and blue T-shirts available.
Among the cities participating in the record attempt as part of Global Smurfs Day are Brussels, Belgium (Peyo’s home country); Athens, Greece; Scheveningen (The Hague), Holland; Dublin, Ireland; Mexico City, Mexico; Panama City, Panama; Warsaw, Poland; Moscow, Russia; Johannesburg, South Africa; New York, USA; and London, UK. Events include a Smurfs Experience in London as The O2 is turned into The “O-Blue” and a family event at New York’s “Smurf Street Blueport” (a/k/a South Street Seaport); also, Peyo’s wife and children will be on hand to join in the fun in their home country of Belgium. […]